With $13,000 off Chevy pickups, deals pushing December auto sales to the redline

For the past year, buying a new car or truck has generally meant paying more than ever before. Between a growing economy and years of pent-up demand for new wheels, the average price for a new vehicle hit $30,832 in November, according to TrueCar. Yet within the past few days, several automakers have thrown extra cash, no-interest loans and other deals on their models in an unusually large push for buyers in December, already expected to be the biggest sales month of the year. If $13,000 off sticker price can't move a new Chevy Silverado, what will?

Those Silverado deals come due to a stumble by General Motors, which will reveal an all-new 2014 Silverado on Thursday, GM's single best-selling vehicle. Last month, Chevy didn't respond to better offers from Ford and Ram on their pickups -- with Ram offering up to $8,200 in discounts -- and GM's inventories swelled to more than twice the normal level, with dealers sitting on 245,853 trucks.